Ideas for art and photography

This is a photo I had printed as a Christmas gift. It was edited with PhotoScape and I used the watercolour option to bring out the pattern of the bricks. It also has a gradient border. I also superimposed the picture on a plain white image to add a 300 pixel border all around the image; that gave a second border.

You can have large prints done at reasonable cost and they look good at 30 inches by 20 inches. My picture was 3000 pixels by 2000 pixels and was 300 dots per inch. This gives you reasonably good resolution, but what if you want one even larger or better resolution for a gallery? Then I can set my camera on large to give me a picture that is 6000 pixels by 4000 pixels. I am also thinking of having an image printed as a ‘gallery print’. Some of these are printed on the reverse of a sheet of acrylic and then that is laminated on a piece of aluminium. This makes for a high quality image that is less likely to be damaged in any way and is more suitable for a gallery. The plain white image that I used? Just take an image that you don’t need any more and erase it so it’s just plain white and then save it. Use the biggest image you can. I used an image 6000 X 4000 pixels.

It seems like it never stops raining in the UK now. I went for a hospital appointment last Thursday and took this photo as I left the hospital. Notice the white border at the sides. I used the perspective distort to distort the picture vertically a little. It make it look a little more imposing. I’ve also added a little text.

Have you ever wanted to sell your car or had an accident? Photos can help sell your car or they can record the damage after an accident. Many photographers are now looking for opportunities that involve photography and photographing cars is an opportunity worth considering. People also like their photo taken in fancy dress or when they are dressed up for cosplay, that’s another opportunity. Many photographers are working in clubs taking photos of people on a night out too. You can also take photos of events like carnivals and these days you don’t have to print them out. You can give them a CD or DVD with their photos on. You can also charge them there and then and give them a business card to tell them where they can access their photos online. Ideally this will be your own website, but it could also be a Flickr stream. Many people will pay a small fee to see their photo online if the event is special to them.

Professional photographers are having a difficult time, because everyone now has a digital camera. If you can take and edit photos better than the average amateur, then you can still make money as a photographer. You do need a fair bit of equipment and some experience of editing. A DSLR with a few lenses and filters and a external flash is fairly standard equipment. If you are imaginative and creative, you can also take photos of people’s homes and other possessions.

What do you photograph? Please share your thoughts in the comments box. You can also follow me on Twitter.